NASA shoots for asteroid, new manned missions

By Matt Smith, CNN

Updated 12:14 PM ET, Thu April 11, 2013

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Photos: All about asteroids

Asteroid 2014 JO25 was imaged by radar from NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California one day before its closest approach to Earth. A grid composed of 30 images shows the two-lobed asteroid in different rotations. The space rock passed Earth on April 19, 2017, at a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers).

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Photos: All about asteroids

A graphic shows asteroid 2014 JO25 as it is projected to fly safely past Earth on April 19, 2017, at a distance of about 1.1 million miles or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon.

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Photos: All about asteroids

This graphic illustrates asteroid 2016 HO3 orbiting Earth as the pair go around the sun together. The asteroid was first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii.

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Photos: All about asteroids

All about asteroids – This graphic shows the track for asteroid 2004 BL86, which flew about 745,000 miles from Earth on January 26, 2015. That's about three times as far away as the moon.

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Photos: All about asteroids

This graphic shows the path Asteroid 2014 RC took as it passed Earth on September 7, 2015. The space rock came within one-tenth the distance from Earth to the moon.

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Photos: All about asteroids

NASA scientists used Earth-based radar to produce these sharp views of the asteroid designated "2014 HQ124" on June 8, 2014. NASA called the images "most detailed radar images of a near-Earth asteroid ever obtained."

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Photos: All about asteroids

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a series of images on September 10, 2013, revealing a never-before-seen sight: An asteroid that appeared to have six comet-like tails.

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Photos: All about asteroids

A diagram shows the orbit of an asteroid named 2013 TV135 (in blue), which made headlines in September 2013 when it passed close by Earth. The probability of it striking Earth one day stands at 1 in 63,000, and even those odds are fading fast as scientists find out more about the asteroid. It will most likely swing past our planet again in 2032, according to NASA.

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Photos: All about asteroids

Asteroid 2012 DA14 made a record-close pass -- 17,100 miles -- by Earth on February 15, 2013. Most asteroids are made of rocks, but some are metal. They orbit mostly between Jupiter and Mars in the main asteroid belt. Scientists estimate there are tens of thousands of asteroids and when they get close to our planet, they are called near-Earth objects.

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Photos: All about asteroids

Another asteroid, Apophis, got a lot of attention from space scientists and the media when initial calculations indicated a small chance it could hit Earth in 2029 or 2036. NASA scientists have since ruled out an impact, but on April 13, 2029, Apophis, which is about the size of 3½ football fields, will make a close visit -- flying about 19,400 miles (31,300 kilometers) above Earth's surface. The images above were taken by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory in January 2013.

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Photos: All about asteroids

If you really want to know about asteroids, you need to see one up close. NASA did just that. A spacecraft called NEAR-Shoemaker, named in honor of planetary scientist Gene Shoemaker, was the first probe to touch down on an asteroid, landing on the asteroid Eros on February 12, 2001. This image was taken on February 14, 2000, just after the probe began orbiting Eros.

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Photos: All about asteroids

The first asteroid to be identified, 1 Ceres, was discovered January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi in Palermo, Sicily. But is Ceres just another asteroid? Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show that Ceres has a lot in common with planets like Earth. It's almost round and it may have a lot of pure water ice beneath its surface. Ceres is about 606 by 565 miles (975 by 909 kilometers) in size and scientists say it may be more accurate to call it a mini-planet. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on its way to Ceres to investigate. The spacecraft is 35 million miles (57 million kilometers) from Ceres and 179 million miles (288 million kilometers) from Earth. The photo on the left was taken by Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The image on the right was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Photos: All about asteroids

One big space rock got upgraded recently. This image of Vesta was taken by the Dawn spacecraft, which is on its way to Ceres. In 2012, scientists said data from the spacecraft show Vesta is more like a planet than an asteroid and so Vesta is now considered a protoplanet.

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Photos: All about asteroids

The three-mile long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid Toutatis flew about 4.3 million miles (6.9 million kilometers) from Earth on December 12, 2012. NASA scientists used radar images to make a short movie.

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Photos: All about asteroids

Asteroids have hit Earth many times. It's hard to get an exact count because erosion has wiped away much of the evidence. The mile-wide Meteor Crater in Arizona, seen above, was created by a small asteroid that hit about 50,000 years ago, NASA says. Other famous impact craters on Earth include Manicouagan in Quebec, Canada; Sudbury in Ontario, Canada; Ries Crater in Germany, and Chicxulub on the Yucatan coast in Mexico.

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Photos: All about asteroids

NASA scientists say the impact of an asteroid or comet several hundred million years ago created the Aorounga crater in the Sahara Desert of northern Chad. The crater has a diameter of about 10.5 miles (17 kilometers). This image was taken by the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994.

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Photos: All about asteroids

In 1908 in Tunguska, Siberia, scientists theorize an asteroid flattened about 750 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.

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Photos: All about asteroids

What else is up there? Is anyone watching? NASA's Near-Earth Object Program is trying to track down all asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth. NASA says 9,672 near-Earth objects have been discovered as of February 5, 2013. Of these, 1,374 have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, or objects that could one day threaten Earth.

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Photos: All about asteroids

One of the top asteroid-tracking scientists is Don Yeomans at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by the California Institute of Technology. Yeomans says every day, "Earth is pummeled by more than 100 tons of material that spewed off asteroids and comets." Fortunately, most of the asteroid trash is tiny and it burns up when it hits the atmosphere, creating meteors, or shooting stars. Yeomans says it's very rare for big chunks of space litter to hit Earth's surface. Those chunks are called meteorites.

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Photos: All about asteroids

Asteroids and comets are popular fodder for Earth-ending science fiction movies. Two of the biggest blockbusters came out in 1998: "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon." (Walt Disney Studios) Others include "Meteorites!" (1998), "Doomsday Rock" (1997), "Asteroid" (1997), "Meteor" (1979), and "A Fire in the Sky" (1978). Can you name others?

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Photos: All about asteroids

Asteroid 1998 QE2 is about 3.75 million miles from Earth. The white dot is the moon, or satellite, orbiting the asteroid.

NASA plans to capture an asteroid and start sending astronauts aloft again by 2017, even with a tighter budget, the U.S. space agency announced Wednesday.

The Obama administration is asking Congress for just over $17.7 billion in 2014, down a little more than 1% from the nearly $17.9 billion currently devoted to space exploration, aeronautics and other science.

The request includes $105 million to boost the study of asteroids, both to reduce the risk of one hitting Earth and to start planning for a mission to "identify, capture, redirect, and sample" a small one. The plan is to send an unmanned probe out to seize the asteroid and tow it into orbit around the moon, where astronauts would study it.

"This mission allows us to better develop our technology and systems to explore farther than we ever have before ... to places humanity has dreamed of for as long as I've been alive," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told reporters.

The Obama administration has said before that it wants to send astronauts to explore an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by 2030.

Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover tweeted out a new image on January 23, 2018: "I'm back! Did you miss me?" The selfie is part of a fresh batch of images the rover beamed back from Mars.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Five years ago and 154 million miles away, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover successfully landed on the planet. Take a look back at what the rover has been up to these past five years, including this selfie it took on January 19, 2016.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The bright blue speck in the middle of this image is NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The image was taken from another NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is in orbit above the planet, on June 6, 2017.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity has temperature and humidity sensors mounted on its mast. Calculations in 2015 based on Curiosity's measurements indicate that Mars could be dotted with tiny puddles of salty water at night.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The Mars rover Curiosity does a test drill on a rock dubbed "Bonanza King" to determine whether it would be a good place to dig deeper and take a sample. But after the rock shifted, the test was stopped.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Wheel tracks from Curiosity are seen on the sandy floor of a lowland area dubbed "Hidden Valley" in this image.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The rover recently encountered this iron meteorite, which NASA named "Lebanon." This find is similar in shape and luster to iron meteorites found on Mars by the previous generation of rovers. A portion of the rock was outlined by NASA scientists.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity took this nighttime photo of a hole it drilled May 5 to collect soil samples. NASA said this image combines eight exposures taken after dark on May 13.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This view of the twilight sky and Martian horizon, taken by Curiosity, includes Earth as the brightest point of light in the night sky. Earth is a little left of center in the image, and our moon is just below Earth. A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright "evening stars."

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The lower slopes of "Mount Sharp" are visible at the top of this image, taken on July 9, 2013. The turret of tools at the end of the rover's arm, including the rock-sampling drill in the lower left corner, can also be seen.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The rock on the left, called "Wopmay," was discovered by the rover Opportunity, which arrived in 2004 on a different part of Mars. Iron-bearing sulfates indicate that this rock was once in acidic waters. On the right are rocks from "Yellowknife Bay," where rover Curiosity was situated. These rocks are suggestive of water with a neutral pH, which is hospitable to life formation.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity shows the first sample of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. The image was taken by Curiosity's mast camera on February 20, 2013.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The rover drilled this hole, in a rock that's part of a flat outcrop researchers named "John Klein," during its first sample drilling on February 8, 2013.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity's first set of nighttime photos include this image of Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet lights. Curiosity used the camera on its robotic arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, to capture the images on January 22, 2013.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

A view of what NASA describes as "veined, flat-lying rock." It was selected as the first drilling site for the Mars rover.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity used a dust-removal tool for the first time to clean this patch of rock on the Martian surface on January 6, 2013.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The Mars rover Curiosity recorded this view from its left navigation camera after an 83-foot eastward drive on November 18, 2012. The view is toward "Yellowknife Bay" in the "Glenelg" area of Gale Crater.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Three "bite marks" made by the rover's scoop can be seen in the soil on Mars surface on October 15, 2012.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity delivered a sample of Martian soil to the rover's observation tray for the first time on October 16, 2012.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image shows what the rover team has determined to be a piece of debris from the spacecraft, possibly shed during the landing.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The rover's scoop contains larger soil particles that were too big to filter through a sample-processing sieve. After a full-scoop sample had been vibrated over the sieve, this portion was returned to the scoop for inspection by the rover's mast camera.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity cut a wheel scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple at the "Rocknest" site on October 3, 2012. This gave researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for what scientists believe was an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here. The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech science team. The rounded shape leads the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity completed its longest drive to date on September 26, 2012. The rover moved about 160 feet east toward the area known as "Glenelg." As of that day the rover had moved about a quarter-mile from its landing site.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The photo was taken by the rover's right navigation camera.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Researchers used the Curiosity rover's mast camera to take a photo of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. The image was used to see whether it had been caked in dust during the landing.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Researchers also used the mast camera to examine the Mars Hand Lens Imager on the rover to inspect its dust cover and check that its LED lights were functional. In this image, taken on September 7, 2012, the imager is in the center of the screen with its LED on. The main purpose of Curiosity's imager camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil from the Martian surface.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This is the open inlet where powdered rock and soil samples will be funneled down for analysis. The image is made up of eight photos taken on September 11, 2012, by the imager and is used to check that the instrument is operating correctly.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This is the calibration target for the imager. This image, taken on September 9, 2012, shows that the surface of the calibration target is covered with a layor of dust as a result of the landing. The calibration target includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a penny for scale comparison, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on September 9, 2012, the 34th day of Curiosity's work on Mars. In the distance is the lower slope of "Mount Sharp."

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The rover captured this mosiac of a rock feature called 'Snake River" on December 20, 2012.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the rover's arm on September 5, 2012.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Sub-image one of three shows the rover and its tracks after a few short drives. Tracking the tracks will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Sub-image two shows the parachute and backshell, now in color. The outer band of the parachute has a reddish color.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Sub-image three shows the descent stage crash site, now in color, and several distant spots (blue in enhanced color) downrange that are probably the result of distant secondary impacts that disturbed the surface dust.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

An image released August 27, 2012, was taken with Curiosity rover's 100-millimeter mast camera, NASA says. The image shows "Mount Sharp" on the Martian surface. NASA says the rover will go to this area.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The Mars rover Curiosity moved about 15 feet forward and then reversed about 8 feet during its first test drive on August 22, 2012. The rover's tracks can be seen in the right portion of this panorama taken by the rover's navigation camera.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

NASA tested the steering on its Mars rover Curiosity on August 21, 2012. Drivers wiggled the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Curiosity moved its robot arm on August 20, 2012, for the first time since it landed on Mars. "It worked just as we planned," said JPL engineer Louise Jandura in a NASA press release. This picture shows the 7-foot-long arm holding a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and other tools. The arm will undergo weeks of tests before it starts digging.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

With the addition of four high-resolution Navigation Camera, or Navcam, images, taken on August 18, 2012. Curiosity's 360-degree landing-site panorama now includes the highest point on "Mount Sharp" visible from the rover. Mount Sharp's peak is obscured from the rover's landing site by this highest visible point.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

An updated self-portrait of the Mars rover Curiosity, showing more of the rover's deck. This image is a mosiac compiled from images taken from the navigation camera. The wall of "Gale Crater," the rover's landing site, can be seen at the top of the image.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image shows what will be the rover's first target with it's chemistry and camera (ChemCam) instrument. The ChemCam will fire a laser at the rock, indicated by the black circle. The laser will cause the rock to emit plasma, a glowing, ionized gas. The rover will then analyze the plasma to determine the chemical composition of the rock.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image, with a portion of the rover in the corner, shows the wall of "Gale Crater" running across the horizon at the top of the image.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image, taken from the rover's mast camera, looks south of the landing site toward "Mount Sharp."

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter "Gale Crater" from the outside here.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter "Gale Crater" from the outside here.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Two blast marks from the descent stage's rockets can be seen in the center of this image. Also seen is Curiosity's left side. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation cameras.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on August 13, 2012. The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet from the spacecraft.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This first image taken by the Navigation cameras on Curiosity shows the rover's shadow on the surface of Mars.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. "Mount Sharp," the mission's ultimate destination, looms ahead.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on the first day after landing.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This is one of the first pictures taken by Curiosity after it landed. It shows the rover's shadow on the Martian soil.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

This image shows Curiosity's main science target, "Mount Sharp." The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground. The dark bands in the distances are dunes.

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Photos:NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

NASA's Curiosity rover was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on November 26, 2011. NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, touched down on the planet on August 6, 2012.

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JUST WATCHED

Why do we need to lasso an asteroid?

MUST WATCH

Wednesday's budget request would include another $20 billion to study near-Earth asteroids -- doubling the current spending on that effort. The funding is aimed not only at finding a suitable asteroid to explore, but also at "protecting the planet," Bolden said.

That concern got new attention after February, when a nearly 150-foot asteroid passed within 18,000 miles of Earth. That one was expected -- but the same day, an unrelated, 45-foot space rock plunged into the atmosphere and exploded high over southwestern Russia, injuring an estimated 1,200 people.

White House science adviser John Holdren told a congressional committee in March that as few as 10% of asteroids more than 150 yards wide -- which he called "potential city killers" -- have been detected.

NASA's budget request includes $822 million for the agency's Commercial Crew Program, its push to resume U.S. space flights through private companies by 2017. Bolden called that the "bottom-line" figure, warning that any cuts would mean delays. NASA has already hired the unmanned SpaceX Dragon to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, though no commercial manned missions are currently under way.

While putting money into renewed human space flight efforts, the proposal cuts scientific research, particularly the study of the other planets in our solar system. Planetary science takes a nearly $300 million hit compared to 2012, the last year detailed figures were available.

NASA officials defended the cut, saying major projects like the Mars rover Curiosity and the upcoming MAVEN probe to study the Martian upper atmosphere are already past their most expensive phases.

"But of course we'll be ramping up again as we approach 2020 and the next Mars rover," said Beth Robinson, the agency's chief financial officer.

Bolden said NASA's Mars research is the biggest part of the planetary science budget.